


Apprentice

by aliencereal



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Elves, Fantastic Racism, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 19:59:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2241579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliencereal/pseuds/aliencereal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Orsino doesn't have any children, but his apprentice is basically his daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apprentice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [undochaos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/undochaos/gifts).



There's a corner of the library that the templars don't watch quite as carefully. Nobody wants to stand there; last year an apprentice spilled something vile all over the floor and there'd been no way to get the smell out.

Orsino finds himself in this corner on a Tuesday afternoon, crouching down to examine a child's hands. The little girl is only eight, one of the small elven children who look up at the templars like monsters of legend, demons out of the fade. She has dark skin and darker hair, pulled back into a messy braid that one of the other children likely did for her. Her name is Clover, and she's burned her hands horribly.

They're pushing mages to take the harrowing earlier and earlier, so the training the apprentices are getting has to be harsher and harsher, the children learning too much too early. Clover isn't the first young mage to hurt themselves badly enough to need healing, not even the first one today.

Orsino guides her gently into the corner, hoping that the glaring templars won't shout at her. He's seen apprentices be yelled at for crying, and he's desperate to shield anyone from it that he can.

He doesn't expect her to trust him. She's clutching her burned fingers close to her chest, crying as quietly as she can manage. His heart aches for her.

“Let me see, little one,” He requests, keeping his voice soft and gentle. She looks at him, examining his face suspiciously. After a moment, she relaxes and offers the damaged skin to him. He takes her hands with his own, being careful not to touch the blisters.

“Thank you for trusting me,” Orsino says, smiling comfortingly at Clover. Her expression is serious under the tears, a strange, grown-up look to see on a small child.

“'s okay. You're an elf, elves don't hurt elves,” She says, so sure and firm in this belief. Orsino's chest tightens; he wonders what she's seen humans do. What she's seen _templars_ do, to her family and the friends she's made here.

When she's old enough to be apprenticed to a specific mage, Orsino requests her as his apprentice.

*

Clover is 12, and Orsino having meetings to talk about becoming first enchanter. He's exhausted all the time, and his apprentice isn't an idiot. She's noticed.

They're meeting to practice healing spells, and Orsino is surprised to find her not only on-time, but early to their meeting place. Clover has made friends with some other apprentices over the years, and she often lingers before lessons to talk with them.

“Well, isn't this a surprise,” Orsino says with a smile, always glad to see his apprentice prepared for a lesson.

“More than you know, Enchanter,” Clover grins triumphantly and pulls a kettle and a small packet of leaves out from under the table.

“I brought tea!” She chirps, setting them on the table and grabbing for her staff to heat the water. Orsino is stunned.

“I can't even get you to drink tea on cold morning,” He says incredulously. Clover smiles as she casts the fire spell.

“It isn't for me, it's for you. You've been so worn out lately,” She says as the water heats up.

“It seems I have an incredibly caring apprentice,” Orsino replies, his chest warm with affection.

“Thanks, dad,” Clover says, just before she flushes and nearly drops her kettle. Orsino chuckles as his flustered apprentice hurries to apologize.

She doesn't need to. He already thinks of her as his daughter.

*

In her mid-teens, one of the older mages catches Clover in a closet with another girl.

They don't report it to the templars, because the circle is a nightmare lately and nobody wants to see a 16 year old girl get made tranquil. Instead, they take her to Orsino, who puts on a show of looking stern and disapproving right up until the huffy older mage takes her leave.

Then he relaxes, shoots his apprentice a worried frown.

“Be a bit more careful next time,” He scolds lightly, and Clover laughs, running a hand through her hair. She does look embarrassed, but she doesn't look _frightened_ , and that means that Orsino is doing alright at this whole situation.

“Sorry, it's just-- I want to kiss her all the time. It's hard,” She complains, and abruptly the whole situation spins itself around.

“This girl is more than just a closet partner, then?” Orsino asks, and Clover looks offended in the way that only a teenaged girl can.

“I love her!” She insists, and Orsino resists the urge to smile. Young love is a spectacle even out of the circle. Instead, he nods understandingly.

“So tell me about her.”

*

Audrey, Clover's lover, is made tranquil shortly after the Qunari nearly take the city. She spends hours in Orsino's office, inconsolable.

*

Things are coming to a boil between the templars and the mages. Orsino wakes up every morning wondering if today's the day Meredith is going to annul the circle and everyone he holds dear with it.

And Clover brings him tea every morning, in the circle robes that now seem like a mark of death.

“Thanks, Clover,” He says, wearily, when she delivers it every morning. The response is always the same. She smiles softly and says--

“You're welcome, dad.”

He always has a reason to keep trying.


End file.
